The Press: House Organ

• Share

Die Neue Zeitung, the U.S. military government's newspaper in Germany, had been slapped down by the Army for exhibiting too much freedom of the press. Some of its news and feature material had sounded too much like the rumblings of the new German nationalism (TIME, Feb. 7). Last week the Zeitung, the "New York Times of Germany," had its freedom curbed; by order of General Lucius Clay it became virtually a house organ of the military government.

Colonel Gordon E. Textor, a West Pointer with no newspaper experience, started the shakeup. The way it was done left the Zeitung staff dizzy. First Textor fired Foreign Editor Hans Lehmann for pro-Nazi leanings, though Textor had refused to approve Lehmann's dismissal for the same reason only three months ago. When twelve other German staffers resigned in protest, Textor named Bruce Buttles, an ex-Christian Science Monitor reporter and a civilian employee of the Army, as Zeitung publisher.

Buttles refused to accept two of the twelve resignations; he fired the men instead. Dissatisfied with the way things were going, General Clay stepped in. He ordered Colonel Textor to appoint a three-man board of military government employees, all former U.S. newsmen, to ride herd on the Zeitung and, presumably, Publisher Buttles. Their first step was to "reconsider" the firings and resignations. Indignant at having his judgment questioned, Publisher Buttles quit.

That left the Zeitung in charge of Editor Kendall Foss, with the three-man board looking over his shoulder. Said Foss: "A satisfactory solution." But the argument had hardly helped the paper's prestige. By week's end, the Zeitung's circulation (542,000) had dropped 12,000.